Pubdate: Wed, 20 Sep 2006
Source: Hartford Courant (CT)
Copyright: 2006 The Hartford Courant
Contact:  http://www.courant.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/183
Author: Ken Byron, Staff Writer

SCHOOL TO BENEFIT FROM DRUG BUST

Equipment Confiscated From Marijuana Growers Will Be Donated To 
Vocational Agricultural Program

SOUTHINGTON -- A massive drug bust two years ago left  police with 
everything someone would need to grow a lot  of marijuana - the kind 
of stuff that they typically  are ordered to destroy.

But police say the equipment they seized in September  2004 can be 
put to better use, and so they are donating  it to Southington High 
School's vocational agricultural  program, where students learn 
legitimate farming  skills. Today, police will turn over to high 
school  staff grow lights, fertilizer and electrical power  equipment 
that they seized in the bust.

Police spokesman Sgt. Lowell DePalma said the  department thought 
about donating the equipment soon  after the bust, but needed a 
judge's permission to do  it. That permission was given recently.

"It sounds corny, but I really think this is akin to  turning swords 
into plowshares," DePalma said.

High school Principal Kathleen McGrath said she is  happy to take the 
equipment, regardless of where it  came from. The donation is 
particularly welcome since a  new building for the vo-ag program is 
being built.

McGrath said the donation will let the vo-ag program do  things it 
could not do before because it did not have  the appropriate 
equipment. The vo-ag program will be  able to pursue projects such as 
hydroponics, which is  growing plants in water, and producing fish. 
In both  cases, the grow lights will be crucial, said vo-ag  program 
director Marion Stannard.

The value of the equipment has not been determined but  McGrath said 
it will go a significant way toward  defraying the cost of equipping 
the new building when  it opens next year.

How the equipment will be used is only one issue high  school staff 
have had to consider. Another is how they  will handle jokes and 
other reactions if and when  students learn they are using things 
that once were  used to produce illegal drugs.

"I don't think the jokes will be long-lived," McGrath  said. "We have 
thought about students' reaction and  we'll tell them that people 
sometimes make unfortunate  choices but that we would rather use 
equipment like  this than let it sit in a police department's 
evidence room. If we can use something like this for good, we  will 
take that opportunity."

The equipment was seized when police broke up what they  called one 
of the largest and most sophisticated  marijuana-growing operations 
they have seen in recent  years. Five people were charged with using 
three houses  to cultivate marijuana that was valued at 
about  $300,000. Two of the houses were in Southington and one  was 
in Burlington, and all were in new, upscale  neighborhoods.

DePalma said that the department often seizes lights  and other 
material for growing marijuana, but that most  of the time it is 
destroyed because it has little use  for anything else.

But this time things were different. DePalma said the  equipment 
being donated is high quality and was hardly  used before it was 
seized. There is also enough of it  to make a worthwhile donation, he said.

"Most of the drug factory equipment we seize is so  low-end and 
low-tech that we don't bother to try to  keep it," DePalma said. "But 
this stuff is brand-new  and we have a mountain of it, the stuff goes 
from the  ceiling to the floor."

DePalma said the donation is particularly timely  because of the new 
vo-ag building.
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